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18331 ) 


i Cre-crr^C-, 

AN OPEN LETTER • 


To the Honorable Lyman J. Gage, 

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 

IN REPLY TO 


CERTAIN STATEMENTS CONCERNING 
THE RECENT CHANGES 

In the Civil Service Rules. 


July 11, 1899. 








- 













AN OPEN LETTER. 


OFFICE OF THE 

NATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE REFORM LEAGUE, 

54 WILLIAM ST., NEW YORK. 

July ii , 1899. 

To the Honorable Lyman J. Gage, 

Secretary of the Treasury: 

Sir:— The Civil Service Reform League, on June 5, pub¬ 
lished a review of the recent Civil Service order of the Presi¬ 
dent, explaining its scope and effect,and declaring that “a back¬ 
ward step of the most pronounced character” had been taken. 
You have since, in an authorized interview, characterized cer¬ 
tain of the statements contained in that review as “ malicious 
misrepresentations,” as “ absolute falsehoods,” and, again, as 
“ false interpretations having basis only in the wish to find 
something in the action of the President to condemn.” 

The question of motive which you have seen fit to raise 
might safely be disregarded. The President knows, and no 
doubt you know, or can easily learn, how earnestly and re¬ 
peatedly the League and its affiliated^organizations protested 
against the deplorable measure that has been adopted, or, to 
speak more correctly, against a measure of the same general 
character, but ctf far narrower scope, which he was understood 
to contemplate. If, with this knowledge, it is supposed that 
the recent action was inspired only by “ the wish to find some¬ 
thing to condemn ” in the President’s official conduct, discus¬ 
sion of the subject with you must be fruitless. On the other 
hand, I do not believe that the public is interested to know 
why our statements were made, but whether those statements 
are true or false, and what are the nature and the need of the 
present situation. 

It is of considerable importance, however, that the public 
should understand what has been your own attitude towards 
the Civil Service law and rules since you took office. You 
then announced that the law would be upheld by every means 
within your power, that it would be your chief aim “ to see 
that a business-like administration is given the country so far 
as the duties devolving upon the Secretary of the Treasury are 




2 


concerned,” and that your appointments would be exclusively 
“ with" regard to merit, and not political obligations.” Many 
worthy citizens, recalling this pledge, but ignorant as to man¬ 
ner in which it has been kept, doubtless still believe that your 
official course has been consistently in accord with it, and at¬ 
tach no little weight to your assurances regarding the harmless¬ 
ness of the new order. It is in every way desirable that such 
citizens should form their judgment in the premises with know¬ 
ledge of the facts, and in addressing you publicly, as I now 
do, I shall first point out what has been, under the present ad¬ 
ministration, the attitude of the Treasury Department: 

THE INTERNAL REVENUE^SERVICE. 

You found the Internal Revenue Service wholly subject 
to the Civil Service rules. With the exception of the princi¬ 
pal deputyships—one in each of the sixty-three districts—all 
of the subordinate offices in that highly important branch 
were to be filled, when vacancies occurred, only through com¬ 
petitive examinations or by promotion. Experience had shown 
that the force engaged in the levying and collection of the in¬ 
ternal taxes should not only be as well trained and as per¬ 
manent as possible, but free from political dependence of affy 
sort. The classification of the service had been ordered with 
this end in view. Nothing hindered the weeding-out of in¬ 
competents; that was to be encouraged. .It was required 
merely that new appointments should be made after careful 
tests of character and fitness, and with the guarantee to the 
person accepting appointment that he would be retained so 
long as his duties were efficiently and faithfully performed. 
The furnishing of bonds, the usual guarantee against losses 
through dishonesty, was required as a matter of course in 
every case. By these means it was expected that the expert 
organization needed so urgently would be developed. When, 
as a result of the Spanish war, the internal taxes became the 
chief source of the government income, the need of this sys¬ 
tem became even more manifest. Following the incoming of 
the new administration, however, there were sweeping changes 
in the force of agents and clerks known commonly as “ dep¬ 
uty collectors,” in many districts. The new appointments 
were made generally in open disregard of the Civil Service 



3 


law, and in most cases for political reasons. One collector, 
in the Nashville district, admitted under oath that he had 
been governed by political considerations, and the same frank 
admission was publicly made by others. After a number of 
these violations were brought to the attention of the Treas¬ 
ury Department, especial instructions were sent to collectors 
bidding them to comply with the law; but without appar¬ 
ent effect. 

In July, 1897, the President altered the situation some¬ 
what by excepting 500 of these employees through an order, 
which was erroneously believed at the time to have extended 
the area of the classified service. On the same date the rule 
forbidding arbitrary removals was promulgated, and a second 
circular was issued by the Commissioner of Internal Rev¬ 
enue, pointing out the application of this to all positions re¬ 
maining classified ; this, too, had no effect. At various times 
it was suggested to you and to the President that offending 
collectors be removed; but in no case was such action taken. 
Finally, in September, 1897, when the practice of violation 
had become almost general, all effort to enforce the law within 
the department was abandoned. Although this was twenty 
months before the signing of the recent order excepting all 
deputies, the force was thereafter treated as though actually 
outside the classified service. The Civil Service Commission 
continued to hold investigations where complaints were made, 
and to submit its recommendations for the correction of the 
evils arising, but the status remained unchanged. In the 
course of one of these proceedings—that at Lancaster, Pa.— 
the results of the political method of filling these offices 
were strikingly shown by the testimony of a special agent 
of the Treasury, as follows: 

The extent of the revenue paid depends very largely upon the effi¬ 
ciency of the deputy collectors. The present system of treating places 
as party spoils results in failure to secure an adequate observance of the 
revenue laws. ... A new man, unfamiliar with the difficult and techni¬ 
cal work of a deputy, would hardly succeed in collecting twenty per 
cent, of the amount due the government, especially under the war rev¬ 
enue law. ... I called on one of the deputies to go with me to visit 
some of the wholesale liquor-dealers in York. The fellow actually did 
not know who the wholesale liquor-dealers in the city of York were. 


4 


lie did not know whether they had paid special tax as wholesale dealers, 
or whether they had paid as retail dealers, and yet this city was his 
headquarters, and had been for four years. 

This man, who had been appointed before these places 
had been classified, was clearly a fit subject for removal. 
The same agent also testified, however, that the Collector 
had admitted to him his intention to “put his political friends 
into the offices of Deputy Collector, if the President would 
rescind or modify the existing rules.” This was early in the ad¬ 
ministration. The Collector, following the example of others, 
did not wait for the modifying order. He proceeded to make 
the majority of his appointments, in his own way; though it 
is true that he has made still other changes since the order ap¬ 
peared. For the future it may be expected that the entire 
force will be liable to complete disorganization in this manner, 
with each change of party. 

You have said that this revival of the spoils system in the 
Internal Revenue Service and the rejection of the merit plan, 
have been excusable for the reason that, “ according to the 
highest legal opinion, the Treasury Department could get ”■— 
which it seems could have been discovered only after the 
greater part of the mischief had been done—these officers 
should not have been included in the classification. If a 
lawyer has been found who supports the proposition that the 
law granting the power to appoint is not modified by the lat¬ 
ter enactment of the Civil Service law, fixing the method of 
appointment, the public would be interested to learn his name 
and his views. The Attorney-General, to whom application 
was first made, declined to give an opinion. The Civil Ser¬ 
vice Commission, on the other hand, produced the opinions 
of a number of leading lawyers, including a former President 
of the American Bar Association, and a former Solicitor- 
General, all to the effect that the application of the law was 
unquestionable. To advance the theory in any case that a 
statute that is in operation may be ignored merely because 
some interested person has challenged its validity is an un¬ 
usual, not to say a revolutionary proceeding. 

The disregard of the law in this branch of the Treasury 
Department during the past two years has served, in many 


s • 


s 

parts of the country, to bring the entire Civil Service system 
into disrepute. 

THE WAR EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS. 

Since the opening of the war with Spain, the number of 
appointments in the Washington offices of the Treasury De¬ 
partment, through competition, under the Civil Service rules, 
has been insignificant. The number of appointments through 
other means—chiefly under the war acts—has been very large. 
When the urgency-deficiency bill was passed by Congress, in 
June, 1898, a clause was inserted permitting the employment 
of certain clerks in the War and Treasury Departments, for 
a period not to exceed one year, “ without compliance with 
the conditions of the Civil Service act.” 

In response to questions from various members, the chair¬ 
man of the appropriations committee, Mr. Cannon, stated 
that “ a few,” only of such clerks would be needed, and that 
he had been assured by officers of the Treasury Department that 
in the emergency existing it “ would not be practicable to get 
them under the Civil Service rules.”. (Cong. Record, June 
2i, p. 6180). This was the beginning. When the number of 
emergency employees grew, and the same argument was used 
to secure further exemptions, I addressed a letter of inquiry 
on the subject to the Civil Service Commission. The Com¬ 
mission in its reply, dated October 22 last, declared that the 
representations of the Treasury officials, as repeated by Mr. 
Cannon, were utterly without foundation; that when the defi¬ 
ciency bill was passed, the registers of eligibles contained the 
names of 6,834 persons, whose fitness had been tested by exam¬ 
ination, and from among whom the clerical employees required 
might have been secured at the shortest notice, and that the 
facts were so reported to Congress at the time. It was pointed 
out that in 1890 three hundred clerks had been appointed in 
one day for the increased work of the Pension office, and 
that on many other occasions in the past emergency forces 
had been organized with the same expedition. These state¬ 
ments were widely published. Nevertheless, in every sub¬ 
sequent act passed by Congress authorizing increases of 
force, the same exempting clause was inserted, and both the 
War and Treasury Departments, failing to correct the erro- 


6 


neous statements of the Treasury officials, continued to make 
their appointments without resort to the Civil Service Com¬ 
mission. I find, on examining these acts, that the “ few ” 
clerks mentioned by Mr. Cannon have become many hundreds, 
and that the appropriations made within the year for addi¬ 
tional iC temporary ” service to the civil branch amount, ap¬ 
proximately, to $2,200,000. 

The act of February 24, 1899, extended the period of all 
appointments made under the previous acts for a second 
year. Finally, in the urgency-deficiency bill of March 3, 
1899, it was provided that “ hereafter ”—without limit of time 
—all additional employees, “ rendered necessary because of 
the increased work of the war with Spain,” may be appointed 
“ without compliance with the conditions of the Civil Service 
act.” 

From March 4, 1897, to September 30,1898, there were but 
fourteen appointments from competitive lists in the Treasury 
Department, not including the Bureau of Engraving and Print¬ 
ing. I believe that there have since been eight or ten. Dur¬ 
ing the same period ninety-four appointments of clerks were 
made in the same offices under the war acts—exclusive of 
promotions and transfers—some after “ pass ” examinations. 
There have since been many more. The six hundred ap¬ 
pointed in the Washington offices of the War Department— 
whose unfitness as a class has been proved by the best of 
testimony—I need not mention here. I add no comment to 
the figures given. Whatever may have happened within the 
department, it is clear that so far as the operation of the 
Civil Service law is concerned, the old system has been to a 
very appreciable degree reestablished. I offer no speculation 
as to the character of individual appointees, or the influences 
that have led to their selection. One of the “ temporary ” 
clerks, whose salary has been increased since his original em¬ 
ployment, is, I am told, the son of the Second Assistant Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury. Whether or not these employees are 
retained permanently, through successive acts of Congress, 
or through other means, it is the fact that an effective 
method of defeating the ends of the Civil Service law lias 
been freely employed, and that the rights of many hundreds 
of men and women who entered the examinations without a 


7 


doubt of the good faith of the government have been 
ignored. 


THE USE OF TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS. 

Many positions in the Treasury Department have been 
filled without competitive examination, through “ temporary ” 
appointments, in the absence of eligible lists. That this 
practice had become an abuse prior to the issuing of the 
President’s recent order is a matter of common notoriety. 
While due in part to the inability of the Commission, for lack 
of funds, to hold certain special grades of examinations 
promptly, it seems attributable in larger part to the lack of 
cooperation of appointing officers, and to the frequent indis¬ 
position of such officers to end the term of service of their 
“ temporary” employees by facilitating the preparation of lists 
from which permanent selections must be made. 

1 offer such an instance that illustrates incidentally, the 
spirit in which some of the higher offices have been treated. 

You displaced Mr. Worthington C. Ford from the office of 
Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, making no charges, and giv¬ 
ing no reason except that you wished the position for another 
man. For many years this important post served as a sort of 
adjunct to the campaign committee of whichever party hap¬ 
pened to be in power. Mr. Ford removed it wholly from pol¬ 
itics, and gave it a standing similar to that of corresponding 
departments in European governments. With the view of 
continuing this status, it had been placed, in 1896, in the 
classified service. You appointed “ temporarily,” to the va¬ 
cancy you had created, not a known commercial expert or 
student of political economy, but a former employee of a 
political press bureau. An examination was ordered by the 
Civil-Service Commission, and the papers for this were pre¬ 
pared. The holding of the examination was deferred, how¬ 
ever, and successive “ temporary” appointments of the same 
person were allowed, until the President, by the recent order, 
placed the office in the excepted list. 

THE REMOVAL RULE AND OTHER MATTERS. 

I will refer to other instances of circumvention of the rules 
in the Treasury Department—as, for instance, the employ- 


8 


ment of “ laborers ” to perform classified work—as I proceed. 
The inconsistent conduct of the department with reference to 
the rule regulating removals should, however, be mentioned 
here. No doubt that rule has been fairly construed and en¬ 
forced in many cases in the Treasury Department. In others 

quite apart from those in the Internal Revenue Service—it 
has not. Your own attitude respecting the latter class is in¬ 
stanced by the following: 

More than eighteen months ago the newly appointed Col¬ 
lector of Customs at Port Huron dismissed W. F. Muir and 
three other persons whom he found serving as deputies. Each 
of these had been told that if he did not resign he would be 
removed on the charge of having paid political assessments 
some five years before. Each refused to resign, and his 
removal followed. It happened that in 1896 the Civil-Service 
Commission had secured the conviction of certain officers at 
this port for collecting assessments, two years before, from the 
whole force of subordinates. Although those who had paid 
technically violated the law, their actual innocence was clearly 
proven, and after having given the testimony on which the real 
offenders were found guilty, each was promised full immunity 
by both the Commission, and by the District Attorney. When 
Muir, for instance, was removed on the preposterous reason 
assigned, not only was the President’s rule that no removal 
should be made except for “just cause” violated, but the good 
faith of the government was broken. On ascertaining that 
Muir had been a highly qualified officer, well fitted for reten¬ 
tion, the Commission urged repeatedly upon the Treasury 
Department the importance of correcting the wrong that had 
been done. But although the matter had your personal atten¬ 
tion you declined to interfere. 

THE WHOLESALE CONDONEMENT OF VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW. 

But the action, perhaps, the most damaging to the merit 
system, to be charged to the Treasury Department under your 
administration, is the decision that personsplaced in positions 
in any branch in disregard of the Civil-Service rules shall not 
be deemed to have been appointed in violation of the law, and 
shall be paid their salaries as though introduced to the service 
in a wholly regular manner. 


9 


In August, 1897, the Civil-Service Commission asked your 
aid in establishing the system in successful opeiation in the 
Civil Service of the states of New York, Massachusetts, and 
Illinois, under which disbursing officers are permitted to pay 
salaries only to those shown by certificate to have been ap¬ 
pointed in legal manner. It was explained that such a check 
would put an end to many rapidly growing abuses. You did 
not agree to this plan, but you stated, in effect, that salaries 
should not be paid to those whose irregular appointments 
might affirmatively be shown. On October 17, 1898—this by 
way of instance—the Commission sent to the department the 
names of 271 persons holding positions in the Department of 
Justice, whose illegal appointments were thus shown, asking 
that these should not be recognized, yhe receipt of this list 
was acknowledged, but the salaries were paid. During this 
entire period, in fact, so far as can be learned, there was no 
case in which a payment of salary was refused. Finally, in 
April last, the Comptroller of the Treasury gave formal notice 
that thenceforth violation of the Civil Service rules would not 
be considered as a sufficient reason for refusing payments in 
any case. As a basis for this decision, the following remark¬ 
able doctrine was put forth : 

“ This violation or disregard, as before said, is not of the law, but 
of an executive regulation, and by the agent of the Executive, who is 
alone responsible to the Executive for such action. The head of an exe¬ 
cutive department is simply an instrument, the hand of the Executive. 
The power which makes the rule or regulation can waive its enforce¬ 
ment as certainly as the power which appoints an officer can remove such 
officer at its pleasure, unless prohibited by the law itself.” 

The “ opinion ” was given in the face of an unbroken line 
of Supreme Court decisions of directly opposite effect. It 
means that, according to the the theory of the writer, any ap¬ 
pointing officer may disregard the law as freely as he may wish, 
without interference by the Treasury Department and so long 
as he is not himself removed by the President. While it 
stands, it will tend inevitably to encourage those practices that 
have in the past proved so demoralizing, and that are now 
condoned, and to take away the most necessary guarantee of 
faithful enforcement. 


10 


It does not appear that any steps have been taken to dis¬ 
place the officer who thus stands in the way of correct admin¬ 
istration, or to set aside his disastrous ruling. 

THE STATEMENTS OF THE LEAGUE. 

To say the least, Sir, your own position in this controversy 
is seriously weakened by the fact, which 1 think I have made 
fairly plain, that many of those abuses most severely censured 
by the press and the public have arisen in the department over 
which you preside, or are due to the laxity or open hostility of 
your official subordinates. Noting this, and also that since the 
appearance of your interview time has been allowed for 
the voluntary correction of those among your assertions which, 
on reflection, you might recognize as inaccurate or unjust,and 
that opportunity has been taken also to make inquires of the 
Civil-Service Commission concerning matters that may de¬ 
pend for substantiation upon its authority, I shall show : 

(I.) That the statements of June 5 concerning the Presi¬ 
dent’s order were absolutely correct; (II.) that the failure of 
the administration as yet to redeem its pledges to enforce the 
law “ thoroughly and honestly,” and to extend its application 
“ wherever practicable,” is more than ever grave and mani¬ 
fest ; and (III.) that the future welfare and integrity of the 
merit system, as well as simple good faith, demand that the 
recent order, in the main, be revoked. 

The specifications of the League’s address to which you 
have referred I will repeat and discuss seriatim. The first of 
these was as follows: 

NUMBER AND CHARACTER OF POSITIONS EXCEPTED. 

“(1) The order withdraws from the classified service not merely three 
thousand or four thousand offices and positions, but, as nearly as can 
now be estimated, 10,109. It removes 3,693 from the class of positions 
filled hitherto either through competitive examination or through an 
orderly practice of promotion, and it transfers 6,416 other positions, in 
the War Department, filled hitherto through a competitive registration 
system under the control of the Civil Service Commission, to a system 
to be devised and placed in effect by the present Secretary of War.” 

The figures given are based on the tables of the Official 
Register of the United States, summarized in House Docu- 


II 


ment 202, Fifty-fourth Congress—the latest definite authority. 
Of the total of 10,109 positions affected, those hitherto sub¬ 
ject to competitive examination and now withdrawn are as 
follows: 

Treasury Department:—Deputy Collectors of Internal Revenue, 

900; Storekeepers and gaugers, 600 ; Shipping Commis¬ 
sioners, 27 ; additional -deputies in Customs Service, 13 ; 
the Alaska Service, 50 ; Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, 1; 
employees at Mints and Assay offices, 42 ; Miscellaneous, 

11. 1,644 

Interior Department:—Pension Examining Surgeons, 606; Land 
Office clerks, 198; Clerks at Pension Agencies, 18; Finan¬ 
cial clerks at Indian Agencies, 57; Examiners of Indian 
timber lands, 23; special Inspectors and Agents, 68; Super¬ 
intendents of Logging and Irrigation, 18; Reservation Sur¬ 


veyors, 10; Miscellaneous, 35. i,°33 

Department of Justice:—Office Deputy Marshals, 204; assistant 
attorneys, 30; private secretaries to District Attorneys, 76; 
Examiners, 8. 318 

Post Office Department:—Financial clerks, 248; Physicians to 
act as clerks, 174; private secretaries, 24; Miscellaneous, 

1 . 447 

Dept, of AgricultureAgents and Experts, 40; State Statisti¬ 
cal Agents, 41. 81 

War Department:—Employees of Military Parks, 58; Army 

Paymasters’ clerks, (indefinite),. 58 

Navy Department:—Assistant Civilian Inspectors. 50 

All Departments:—Private Secretaries, 40; Officers appointed 

by the President without confirmation, 22. 62 


3,693 

I will not rehearse the arguments that have been made for 
the retention in the competitive classification of the most of 
the offices and positions in this list. I will merely emphasize 
the fact that, as in the case of the internal-revenue deputies, 
each is taken outright from the stable, non-political class, and 
placed in that class which is notoriously subject to frequent 
and arbitrary change. The competitive entrance test is but 
one feature of the merit system. The offer of opportunity for 
advancement and the protection against removal except for 











12 


fair reasons, and alter an opportunity for an explanation, and, 
finally, the exclusion of politics where politics has no place, 
are features no less essential. 

The movement for civil-service reform in the past has 
been constantly forward. Through the action of successive 
Presidents the time has been brought gradually nearer when, 
in the language of the Senate committee that reported the 
civil-service bill, the merit system should include “ nearly all 
of the vast numbers of appointed officials,” whose duties are 
not political, but “ who carry into effect the orders of the 
Executive or heads of departments, whether at Washington or 
elsewhere.” When this advance not only is checked, but 
when thousands of positions are restored to the old basis, 
what could more fittingly be termed a “ backward step ” ? 

THE USE OF “ PASS EXAMINATIONS.” 

In discussing these withdrawals you have attached im¬ 
portance to the fact that persons appointed to. some among 
the positions affected are to be subjected to non-competitive 
or “pass” examinations. This requires a word. In the 
development of the merit system nothing has been shown 
more clearly than the fact that for its most important pur¬ 
poses the “ pass ” test is ineffectual and generally worthless. 
Under this .system in the consular service, for instance, there 
were 112 candidates examined during the first year of the 
present administration, and of these hi passed successfully 
and were appointed. During the same period nearly 90 per 
cent, of the salaried consuls were removed for political 
reasons and new men put in their places. Again, in except¬ 
ing the internal-revenue deputies of higher grade, in July, 
1897, the President laid down the non-competitive rule. The 
results of this attempt, I am told, were even less satisfactory. 
It appears that the appointments were invariably made first 
and the examinations held afterward. Moreover, while in 
this case a large proportion of the persons appointed failed to 
pass. I am told that some at least of these have been re 
tamed in the employ of the Treasury Department, the failure 
notwithstanding. I have asked the permission of the Civil- 
Service Commission to examine the records that would prove 
or disprove this allegation. The Commission has so far 


l 3 


treated the League and its representatives at all times with 
perfect courtesy. Its records have been invariably opened to 
us, as I have been led to believe they have been to all re¬ 
sponsible parties. Many of the references in this letter are 
proof of that fact. In the present instance, however, it has 
declined to grant the permission asked, for the reason that 
this would be, in its judgment, “against public policy, and 
not in the interests of the public service.” 

It is to be hoped that whatever investigation maybe made 
under your authority will prove that the statement in question 
is not borne out by the facts. 

THE CHANGES IN THE WAR DEPARTMENT. 

The positions withdrawn from classification in the field 
and construction branches of the War Department include 
those of superintendents, overseers, sub-inspectors, and store¬ 
keepers, down to the various classes of mechanics. '1 he 
numbers affected, compiled from the official authority above 
mentioned, are as follows : 


Quartermaster’s Department at Large . 622 

Medical Department at Large. 28 

Ordnance Department at Large. 4,377 

Engineer Departmental Large. 1,389 


6.416 

The language of the order relating to each of these classes, 
is as follows: 

“ Appointments to these positions shall be made hereafter 
on registration tests of fitness prescribed in regulations to be 
issued by the Secretary of War and approved by the 
President ” 

You say that the effect of this is to place these positions, 
“in exactly the condition that similar places in the Navy De¬ 
partment have been in for several years.” The navy-yard 
rules are under the control of the Civil-Service Commission, 
and cannot be altered without its consent. They were so 
placed by President Cleveland, chiefly that they might “ be 
given stability independent of changes of administration.” It 
is most significant, moreover, that, as the League indicated, 







14 


the commission had established the navy-yard plan in the 
War Department, under the immediate control of local 
boards of engineers, nearly two years ago, and that this plan 
was being successfully extended at the time the order was 
issued. The rules were embodied in circular No. 13 of the 
Engineers, issued August 16, 1897. Col. Alexander Mac- 
Kenzie, assistant chief, gave testimony as to their results be¬ 
fore the Senate civil-service committee in February, 1898, as 
follows: 

“There are a few officers of the Corps of Engineers whose unfavorable 
impressions of the Civil Service law, formed in advance of a full knowl¬ 
edge of its requirements, have not been changed by experience, but 
correspondence with officers leads me to believe that the large majority 
prefer a competitive merit system of securing employees, rather than 
one in which personal opinions or wishes are to control.” 

Notwithstanding this expert approval of the plan under 
development, the Secretary of War, in May, 1898, addressed 
a letter to the Civil-Service Commission, asking that each of 
these classes be excluded absolutely from the operation of the 
law. His request was not granted. When at the suggestion 
of Secretary Alger, the registration system, so far as it had al¬ 
ready been established, is set aside, and this force, instead of 
being “ placed in exactly the .same condition ” as that in the 
navy-yards, is made subject to the control of Secretary Alger 
alone, do you believe that an enlightened public opinion will 
accept the change as intended to establish a satisfactory, non¬ 
political system ? Mere “registration tests of fitness,” with¬ 
out the essential elements that have made the navy yard plan 
work so well, must prove relatively worthless. If, following 
this public discussion of the subject, an equivalent to the 
navy-yard plan is indeed established, that will be a cause for 
congratulation. 

THE VALIDATION OF TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS. 

The second specification of the League was as follows: 

“ ( 2 .) It declares regular at least one thousand additional appoint¬ 
ments made temporarily, without examination—in many cases in direct 
disregard of the lav/—in branches that are not affected by the exceptions, 
but that remain nominally competitive.” 


The positions thus filled are, for the most part, of a special 
character, and in branches outside of Washington. You do 
not dispute the statement of the number affected, so I shall 
not need to justify that. In each instance, the Civil-Service 
Commission had permitted an appointment without examina¬ 
tion pending the preparation of an eligible list. Without 
warrant for such unusual action in the law itself, the order 
declares that competition in each such case may be waived, 
and the appointees permanently retained. The number of 
“ temporary ” appointments during the first year of the 
present administration increased threefold over that of the 
year preceding. Some appointing officers construed the rules 
as authorizing them to make “ temporary ” appointments to 
fill any and every vacancy, regardless of the existence of 
lists. Others, as, for instance, the Appraiser at New York, 
refused to appoint from the lists, even where new ones were 
especially created. While the Commission had no difficulty 
in meeting the demand for eligibles in most branches, in these 
special cases it needed support to properly conduct its work. 
As I have pointed out, the co-operation of appointing officers 
was often lacking. Again, although in asking Congress for 
the small additional sum needed to cover its increased work, 
the Commission showed clearly that the operation of the rules 
in branches originally classified had saved three millions an¬ 
nually in the Washington offices alone, its request was denied 
—after an extended debate that you may recall. It does not 
appear that at that critical time the President or any head of 
a department urged upon Congress the importance of provid¬ 
ing for the emergencies in question. As it is, when a thou 
sand persons are admitted permanently to the classified 
service, after a failure to facilitate properly the holding of 
examinations, the precedent established must be viewed as 
most unfortunate. 

THE WAR-EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS. 

The League said also concerning the effect of this feature 
of the President’s order: 

“( 3 ) It permits the permanent appointment of persons employed, 
without examination, for emergency purposes during the course of the war 
with Spain, thus furnishing a standing list of many thousands fronr 


i6 


which positions in the War Department may be filled, without tests of 
fitness, for a long time to come.” 

In the several provisions made by Congress for additional 
clerks and others for war purposes these employees were in¬ 
variably styled as “ temporary,’’ and as such were placed on 
the government rolls. That part of the President’s order here 
in question reads as follows : 

“ All persons serving under temporary appointments at the date of 
the approval of this section may be permanently appointed in the dis¬ 
cretion of the proper appointing officer.” 

You say that this language is not to be applied to the em¬ 
ployees in question. It is gratifying to learn that this is the 
construction the administration has decided to adopt, for no 
doubt you speak with authority. When, however, you declare 
the statement that it “ permits ” of a different construction to 
be “ absolutely false,” you are in a different position. The 
view taken by the League as to the effect of this rule was the 
view taken universally. On May 29, the Washington Star , 
for instance, announced that: 

“ There is great joy on the part of the temporary employees of the 
War Department because of the fact that under the President’s Civil 
Service order issued to-day they may be given permanent appointment 
in the classified service at the discretion of the Secretary.” 

This impression was not corrected, I am told, until after 
the subject had been seriously debated by officers high in 
authority, and until after your interview had appeared. 

The original appointment of these emergency employees, 
and the manner of their retention, to the present time, I have 
already discussed. 

THE EFFECT OF THE TRANSFER RULE. 

The bearing upon future appointments of the rule govern¬ 
ing transfers, is covered by the fourth specification : 

‘( 4 ) It alters the rules to the effect that in future any person appointed 
with or without competitive examination, or without any examination, 
may be placed by transfer in any classified position, without regard to 
the character or similarity of the employments interchanged, ‘ and after 
non-competitive examination only.” 


You argue, in effect, that the opportunities provided for 
evasion of the law by this and similar changes are not so 
serious as we have stated, for the reason that the administra¬ 
tion does not intend to use them. But you should appreciate 
that this argument cannot alter a literal or legal construction 
in any case. Neither can the professed belief of appointing 
officers that they will successfully resist the pressure for the 
employment of those opportunities, which, sooner or later, 
will be brought to bear, be accepted as reassuring. 

You say that “ the one change which has been made in the 
rule permitting transfers has been the dropping of part of the 
last sentence of that rule as it stood, the clause: 

“ Or, if in said position there is not required, in the judgment of the 
Commission, the performance of the same class of work or the practice 
of the same mechanical trade performed or practised in the position from 
which transfer is proposed.” 

Exactly so, but the clause that you quote was the very 
essence of the rule, the one thing that prevented its misap¬ 
plication for other than its legitimate purposes. It marked 
the difference between transfer and promotion, allowing the 
former method for the interchange of positions of similar 
character, but requiring competitive examination, so far as 
practicable, in every case—whether for promotion or original 
appointment—as the regular method for filling positions of 
higher grade. To enable employees to reach positions for 
which they were not in line for promotion, but for the duties 
of which they might show especial talent, to permit of “ mo¬ 
bility,” in short, the rule provided expressly that a person em¬ 
ployed in any grade should not for that reason be debarred 
from competitive examination for any other grade. The effect 
of the change is exactly as has been slated. A person ap¬ 
pointed after having passed one of the lower grades of com¬ 
petitive examination, or having gained a position subject to 
registration merely, without examination, can now be trans¬ 
ferred, after a “ pass ” examination only, to any competitive 
position in the classified service. The Civil-Service Com¬ 
mission is already permitting transfers between grades, which 
under the old rules were denied. The effect of this practice 
is likely to be that the higher grades, in time, will be placed 
on a virtually non-competitive basis. 


i8 


It is notorious that the use of evasive means to get into the 
service becomes common as soon as such means are fairly 
discovered. As an illustration : During the past year it has 
become a frequent practice to send persons to be appointed, 
without examination, as clerks at post-offices about to be pro¬ 
vided with the free delivery—and thus to be included in the 
classified service—and immediately following, to transfer these, 
again without examination, to similar posts in other offices or 
other departments for which they have actually been intended. 
A clerk appointed at the post-office at Napa, Cal., was within 
a few days transferred in this way to the San Francisco Mint; 
another appointed at Greenville, O., was brought' at once to 
Washington, and at least four others were brought from cities 
in Virginia, Florida, and Colorado, to serve in the department 
of which you are the head. 

The employment of persons without examination as “ la¬ 
borers,” and their subsequent assignment to classified duties, 
constitute an abuse of long standing. The cases in the Ap¬ 
praiser’s office at New York are fair instances : and if you will- 
cause inquiries to be made in the New York Immigration 
offices, you will find others of very similar nature. So serious 
has this evil grown under this administration, in fact, that the 
Civil-Service Commission gives nearly a page and a half of its 
recent annual report to its discussion. Referring to the 
rule of June, 1896, forbidding the practice, it says: 

“The Commission regrets to report, from information received 
from time to time in the shape of complaints and protests, that while 
perhaps this Executive order operated as a check for a time upon this 
practice, yet it has been resumed and the assignment of persons ap¬ 
pointed to unclassified positions to the regular performance of classified 
duty is again being made to a considerable extent . . . . It is noted 
that the number of unclassified labor positions increases out of all pro¬ 
portion to the need for mere unclassified labor while in some cases the 
number of persons actually engaged in such labor is reduced to the 
smallest proportions.” 

When such practices exist, in the face of inhibitory pro¬ 
visions of law, do you not think they will tend to increase, 
or even become the rule, when they are given nominally, or 
constructively, sanction of law ? 


1 9 


THE EFFECT OF THE RE-INSTATEMENT RULE. 

The last specification concerns the removal of another im¬ 
portant safeguard against abuse: 

(5) It permits the re-instatement, within the discretion of the 
respective department officers, of persons separated from the service a 
any previous time for any stated reason. 

The President’s new rule on this subject is as follows: 

“Any person dismissed from the service upon charges of delin¬ 
quency or misconduct may be re-instated, subject to the other conditions 
of these rules, without regard to the one-year time limit of this rule, upon 
the certificate of the proper appointing officer that he has thoroughly 
investigated the case and that the charges upon which the dismissal was 
based were not true.” 

When it is considered that a review of any such case—from 
one to twenty years, perhaps, after the removal has been made, 
must necessarily be of an ex parte character, and that all 
the influence the candidate for re-instatement may be able to 
secure will be brought to bear upon the officer whose judg¬ 
ment is to decide the matter, the dangerous character of this 
rule is perfectly patent. Removals have frequently been 
made in the past for insufficient or trumped-up reasons, and 
against these the League has repeatedly protested, but the 
effort to right such wrongs in this manner will lead to 
the commission of other similar wrongs in the future, and, 
eventually, to political reprisals with each change of party. 
There will be constant temptation to make vacancies in order 
to permit re-instatements. The service will suffer from the 
return of relatively incompetent and unfit men, and the prob¬ 
lem of superanuation will be further complicated. That these 
will be the results can'be shown by example; In one division 
of the Pension Bureau, following the last change of adminis¬ 
tration, nineteen special examiners were dropped to permit the 
reinstatement of veterans, to whom the time-limit has never 
applied. Of the men dismissed, eighteen were Democrats, 
and one a Republican; all I believe, had been appointed after 
examination, and the fitness of none had been questioned. 
That such occurences will multiply when the pressure for rein¬ 
statement under the new rule begins to be felt—and particu- 


20 


larly at the time of a change of party control—cannot be 
doubted. 

Your statement that the Commission, by its own practice, 
indicated approval of this plan, is incorrect. 

THE PRESENT NEED. 

In its address, the League stated that the reduction of the 
area of the competitive system, and these retrogressive changes 
in the rules that I have shown followed a long succession of 
infractions of the letter or spirit of the law, and must be con¬ 
sidered in their relation to these. A special committee has 
been engaged in the collection of the facts on which this 
statement is based. Except in so far as has been necessary 
for purposes of illustration, I have not given these facts in 
detail, for the report of that committee will shortly be 
published. 

You have said that it had become generally understood 
that the extensions made in 1896 were “ too sweeping,” and 
that President Cleveland, finding this to be the case himself, 
“almost immediately took out some officers.” President 
Cleveland, six months after the date of his principal order, 
excepted seventy-eight attorneys, understood to be engaged 
in the preparation of cases for trial. The extensions were 
made nearly a year before the close of his term ; during all of 
that period there was no other change. The pledge of the 
Republican party to maintain the law as it stood, and to ex¬ 
tend its application wherever practicable, was given after the 
revised rules had gone into effect. The direct relation of that 
pledge to the then existing situation was questioned at no 
time during the campaign of 1896. It is the evident judg¬ 
ment of the people—a judgment expressed with remaikable 
emphasis by leading journals, without regard to party—that 
it is as binding to-day as it was when it was made, and that 
in its present action the administration has committed a grave 
error. 

I am, yours, very respectfully, 

George McAneny, 

Secretary. 































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